China’s Future & U.S. Jobs

In what hopefully was meant as, and will be interpreted as, an olive branch, China "tried Wednesday to assure mobile phone companies using Google’s Android operating system that they won’t be hurt by a dispute over Web censorship, saying the technology will be allowed if it complies with regulations. "

Google postponed their own smart phone launch when they pulled back two weeks ago, but others also are developing Android-based phones that would have been hurt if this was effected. However, China remains on the attack, "Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily accused Google on Wednesday of being a tool of Washington’s "Internet hegemony."

After seeing its strength eroded by the global crisis, Washington is shifting its strategic focus from the military to the Internet," the newspaper said. "It is against this backdrop that Google becomes a tool of the country’s Internet hegemony."

It’s Internet Galactica or more like you show me yours and I’ll show you mine maybe? Here we are in 2010 and all of a sudden this Genie has snuck out of the bottle and refuses to crawl back in quietly. According to today’s piece in the Mercury News, Google is in talks hashing out details to continue working there. We know there was talk about Chinese officials interrogating and holding Google employees but little confirmation on the details. Secretary Clinton is said to be planning on bringing this up with "China’s foreign minister Thursday on the sidelines of an international conference on Afghanistan in London. " China has over 700 million cell phone users which also buy phones and accoutrements and their markets alone can turn around our entire economy. If jobs are important to this administration, they will handle this quietly and with the highest protocols available. The stakes get higher every day.

700,000 phone buyers and 700,000 businesses operate in China

From China’s National Global Times, "Nearly 700,000 Western companies operating in the country that have to adapt to the market and to the diversities of Chinese society." The person who writes on this topic for them chooses his words carefully and skillfully to draw an image that China is hip to our dialectic and understands the public relations terms. They seem willing to joust at lots of different levels and they aren’t gloaters. Unless Google is in some way vulnerable to losing its proprietary algorithms, we will see some cool heads soon prevail and move to more positive aspects of this relationship The communist online English paper lays out in bullet points that they don’t want a problem, but there are more than two sides and they don’t need help.

China does not like business deals to become political which is what they say has happened: "Doubtless, it is the "digital diplomacy" involved that has further pulled down Google’s popularity among Chinese. The Obama administration, with its close ties to Google, has purposely raised its pitch and assertively projected the issue at a diplomatic level. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s scheduled speech on Internet freedom tomorrow has made the Google issue even more political." And in the final line, you understand we are not saving anyone face, considering all the change that has happened, "Conciliatory negotiation may help in solving any issue. The West’s arrogance will not work."

In another piece by Tian Wei CCTV’s main gal on the air, she lays out the public capitulation Google bestowed on the Chinese government just to get itself in the door, and she points out some minor porn infractions and benign mistakes they made along the way, nonchalantly, as if it would be no big deal to lose the formidable titan of the western digerati. "Other alternatives to Google will emerge in only a short time." Well only if somebody was able to figure out the magical code that makes Google so special. Otherwise, the people of China will be working without the # 1 search engine in the biosphere.

We know (hope?) there are things going on behind the scenes on this and we look forward to leadership sharing those with us as soon as possible. The issue is so close to home, here in Silicon Valley, that we are still waiting to hear from Tom Campbell, Senator Boxer, Carly Fiorina, Meg Whitman, Steve Poizner or any other leaders who would like to share their thoughts. Please join us.